Act Now And Claim Your Share Of £6 BILLION!

I hope you are enjoying this heatwave, because we investors have had little else to celebrate lately.
 
I mean, so much for…

• the bull run — the FTSE 100 has stagnated for the last 12 months now…
• blue chip ‘safe havens’ — Tesco and Centrica continue to trade around 52-weeks lows…
• quality growth stocks — ARM Holdings is 25% off its high, ASOS is 60% off…
• ‘easy money’ IPOs — even Royal Mail is fast losing ground…
• private investor favourites — Quindell and Blinkx have crashed…
• my soaraway small-caps — the Paton portfolio is rapidly melting in this heat…
• all those predictions about FTSE 7,000…

Yes, a veritable herd of City professionals and investment experts — as well as myself — will be looking at their year-end market forecasts and starting to sweat in this summer sun…
 
In fact, a recent Reuters poll involving “61 traders, fund managers and strategists” delivered a median end-of-2014 projection of 7,000…
 
…which suggests there are still plenty of party hats (rather than tin hats) on standby around the Square Mile.
 
Just so you remember, I’m on the hook for 7,182.
 
Among others, Tim Drayson at Legal & General is on for 7,200, Paul Kavanagh at Killick Capital is on for 7,400…
 
And let’s not forget Chris Burvill, director of UK equities at Henderson, who is going for 7,500 sometime this year.
 
Brave man.
 
That said, at 6,700, the index needs to climb just 4.5% in just 6 months to get to 7,000.
 
And just what will happen then?
 
Well…
 
The headlines could be screaming about the new record high, market confidence could then sky-rocket, new investors could then quickly queue up to panic buy…

…and everyone will suddenly remember a 3%-plus dividend yield from the index is still a bargain against savings accounts that pay next to nothing.
 
As I’ve said many times before, there’s no point in waiting in cash for the party to start…

These investors did not wait and they are smiling in the sun today

Of course, some investors will have much more to celebrate than just the hot weather right now…

Certainly anyone buying the following five stocks 12 months ago — when we last soaked up some 30°C sun — will no doubt be basking in their success today:

• African Barrick Gold up 127%
• Kentz up 123%
• Shire up 115%
• Centamin up 88%
• Greencore up 87%

Of course, a year is never long enough to judge the long-term success of any investment decision. Nevertheless, these kinds of gains highlight the hot returns available to cool investors prepared to focus on company fundamentals…

…and can avoid being put off by stagnant markets, fiscal cliffs, QE tapers, property bubbles and manic doom-mongering from Arturo Bris.

Part of this £6 BILLION could soon be yours

 Mark my words, one day this sideways FTSE will breakout from its current trading range and shoot higher…

And who knows? Maybe the market will re-awaken during the next two weeks, when a gaggle of big-name share issue results and announce their latest dividends.

In the table below are eight top shares alongside their next results dates and my predicted change to their interim/final/quarterly payouts:
 

             
There’ll be some currency movements to factor in, so the actual sterling payments from the dollar and euro payers in the list may vary from my underlying projections.

But I trust you’ll agree the general picture does not look too bad for these big-name shares at present.

By the way, the total payout from those eight names alone could be almost £6bn.

And part of that cash giveaway could easily work its way into your bank account this summer, assuming you take decisive action now…

Collect your share of this summer’s dividend giveaway

Whatever the market is doing (and whatever the weather is doing), there’s no real secret to smart, successful, Foolish investing.

Here’s what we believe you need to do:

Buy first-class companies. Hold them. Collect and reinvest their dividends. Buy some more. Keep holding. Keep reinvesting. Sell rarely. Repeat. Retire happy, wealthy, healthy and early.

And you can start all that right now.

Buy those eight shares in that table in equal measure, for instance, and your portfolio would offer a forecast 2014 income of about 4.3%.

Which is not bad in the current circumstances.